A couple of years ago, a Danish show for children ages four to eight made news around the world because the title character had a prehensile penis that he employs as various tools.  This came to mind when as I watched 2022’s Moloch, a folk horror movie about a curse handed down though generations of women in a small town.  A school play illustrates the telling of the legend, and a group of elementary-school aged girls hold aloft a large balloon representing an egg while boys dressed as sperm dance around it.

Imagine a performance like this in an American public school!  So many things are common across world cultures, yet it is often difficult to overlook the differences.  I think this contributes to the appeal of horror movies from European backwaters, where the gods and legends are centuries older than anything here in the states, where there may be dark old ways that are still secretly observed today.

The folk horror element here concerns a local legend that, if true, means one family still carries a curse.  That family is quite charming: a single mom and her adorable daughter, grandmother and great-grandfather.  The mother is lonely, but soon takes a liking to the British guy running a forensic dig across the road.  He’s there to unearth and analyze bog mummies that were discovered when a local homeless man froze to death while digging frantically in the bog overnight.

This is all a good setup and the film does well by it.  Everybody in this felt like real people we were observing, and we come to be concerned for their welfare.  There are interesting details such as the grandmother stealing sugar packets at every restaurant she visits.

There aren’t many scares here, so much as there is a significant atmosphere of lingering dread.  There is one especially effective scene where traps have been laid out around the perimeter of the house, putting a bell on anybody who trips one.  Just imagine being in the woods on a misty night and hearing the sounds of tiny, tinkling bells converging on you.

I have said before how improved Shudder’s exclusive offerings have been recently, but Moloch is much better than even than new level-set.  I liked the script, the acting, the premise and it even manages to stick the landing.  At first, I thought there was flaw in its premise towards the end; however, about an hour later, I realized what had happened in that scene, and I had a whole new appreciation for the film. 

One day in the far future, the Dutch may make a folk horror movie about a god of old, who rises again so that he might kill legions with his magical penis.  For now, I hope you will check out Moloch and, even more importantly, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Dir: Nico van den Brink

Starring Sallie Harmsen, Alexandre Willaume

Watched on Shudder